Alex Zhang Hungtai has been creating enormously diverse music throughout his career. In addition to the also stylistically diverse project Dirty Beaches, Hungtai has been releasing music under the moniker Last Lizard and more lately in his own name. Besides the more free jazzed collaboration with David Meranha and Gabriel Ferrandini as well as part of the trio Love Themes, Hungtai has released both minimalistic piano and saxophone compositions since he ended Dirty Beaches. His latest solo release, the album “Divine Weight”, points back towards his last album as Dirty Beaches, “Stateless”, which also was an ethereal and atmospheric saxophone album. However, “Divine Weight” incorporates a more alternative approach to playing the saxophone which implies limitations but also the unfolding of the instrument’s potential; a potential which suggests a personal and existential dimension in addition to the musical.

“The saxophone is not only a friend that helps me reveal myself to me. It is also a harsh training buddy that punishes you when you play lies,” Hungtai explains in the following interview, in which he reflects upon the personal dimension that the saxophone opens up, and the responsibility it demands of its player. Læs resten

Having broken off with the Lee Bannon and ¬ b monikers – possibly for good – Dedekind Cut’s Fred Warmsley kicked off 2016 with an interesting although not entirely satifying collaboration with Rabit, followed by the merely solid single “Last”. It wasn’t until this past spring’s “American Zen” EP that the direction in which Warmsley was heading began to take shape. A gorgeous ambient release that could almost pass for a full-length album, “American Zen” signalled not only the sounds that Dedekind Cut would go on further exploring, but also a fresh approach to the topics he had already shown interest in, mostly through mixes and one-off tracks.

As if to make sure he provided us with the right context for his debut LP, in the days before its release Warmsley posted a marathon “Ambient Essentials” playlist which, among other things, confirmed Enya’s newly legitimate influence and served as a welcome reminder of the more and less contemporary ambient touchstones. Læs resten